The first poll in the wake of the temporary agreement on Iran’s nuclear weapons program finds the American public largely supportive of the deal:
(Reuters) – Americans back a newly brokered nuclear deal with Iran by a 2-to-1 margin and are very wary of the United States resorting to military action against Tehran even if the historic diplomatic effort falls through, a Reuters/Ipsos poll showed on Tuesday.
The findings were rare good news in the polls for President Barack Obama, whose approval ratings have dropped in recent weeks because of the botched rollout of his signature healthcare reform law.
According to the Reuters/Ipsos survey, 44 percent of Americans support the interim deal reached between Iran and six world powers in Geneva last weekend, and 22 percent oppose it.
While indicating little trust among Americans toward Iranian intentions, the survey also underscored a strong desire to avoid new U.S. military entanglements after long, costly wars in Iraq and Afghanistan.
Even if the Iran deal fails, 49 percent want the United States to then increase sanctions and 31 percent think it should launch further diplomacy. But only 20 percent want U.S. military force to be used against Iran.
The survey’s results suggest that a U.S. public weary of war could help bolster Obama’s push to keep Congress from approving new sanctions that would complicate the next round of negotiations for a final agreement with Iran.
“This absolutely speaks to war fatigue, where the American appetite for intervention – anywhere – is extremely low,” Ipsos pollster Julia Clark said. “It could provide some support with Congress for the arguments being made by the administration.”
In the past, polling has generally shown that the American public supports a harder line toward Iran than is generally true with respect to other international conflicts. Given the enmity that has existed between the two nations for the past three decades, and the still existent memory of events such as the Iranian Hostage Crisis of 1979-1981, the terror attacks carried out against the U.S. Embassy and Marine Barracks in Beirut in the 1980s, and the fact that Iran played an active role in training the insurgents who went on to kill American soldiers in Iraq in the 2000s, this isn’t entirely surprising. However, there does indeed some to be no small degree of war weariness among the public as a whole even when it comes to even an adversary like Iran that has targeted the United States going on three decades now.
